No Exit by Taylor Adams

I’ve known for years that Hulu adapted No Exit, and for years I’ve told myself I wasn’t going to watch it until I read the book. Then I forgot to read the book, which is how a plan that should have taken a week ended up taking several years. I finally got around to it, and I’m glad the delay didn’t cost me anything, because Taylor Adams’s novel is a tightly wound thriller that I’m happy I went into with fresh eyes.

A locked-room thriller with a blizzard for a lock

I tend to either love or hate a locked-room thriller, with very little middle ground, so I went in a little nervous. No Exit isn’t a strict locked room, since there’s technically a whole snowy mountain outside, but a blizzard that makes the roads impassable does the same job as a bolted door. College student Darby Thorne is driving through the Colorado Rockies to reach her mother in the hospital when the storm forces her to wait it out at a remote rest stop. She shares the building with four strangers, and when she steps outside to find cell service, she discovers a child locked in a van in the parking lot. With no phone signal and no way out, she has to work out which of the people sharing her space is responsible.

Everything in the book is built around a small group of people who have no reason to trust one another and nowhere to go, which makes every conversation feel like it could be a clue or a trap. The psychology here is the best part. Darby can’t verify anything anyone tells her, so she has to decide who to believe based on instinct, body language, and whatever small inconsistencies she can catch, and the reader gets pulled into the same exercise. I caught myself building a suspect list almost immediately, and then revising it every few chapters as new details came in. It’s a very effective way to keep someone invested, because the suspicion starts to feel personal.

Tension that rarely lets up

If you like thrillers that keep your nerves frayed the whole time, No Exit does that job well. The confined setting keeps the pace tight because there’s never a chapter where the characters can step away and regroup somewhere safe. Adams uses the cold, the isolation, and the ticking clock of a child in danger to keep the pressure steady, and I never hit a stretch where I felt the story was spinning its wheels. Darby is also an easy character to root for, mostly because she keeps acting rather than waiting for someone else to solve the problem, and her desperation to get back on the road to her mother adds a second layer of stakes to an already tense situation.

My one real struggle was keeping the supporting cast straight. With four strangers introduced in quick succession, all stuck in the same room, I had a hard time attaching names to personalities at first, and I spent the early chapters mentally shuffling who was who. That did settle down on its own, either because I got used to the cast or because the book eventually makes the juggling easier for you (I’ll leave that one vague to avoid spoilers). It’s a small complaint, but anyone who reads in short bursts rather than long sittings might find the opening stretch a bit more of a slog than I did.

That ending, and why I read it twice

The ending is what elevates the book for me. When I first got there, I wasn’t sure I’d understood everything that had just happened, so I went back and read through it again, and on the second pass it came together as a very clever piece of plotting. I’m usually a little wary of endings that require a reread, since that can signal a book is being murky for the sake of it, but here the details were all in place, and I had simply missed how neatly they fit. It left me thinking about the book longer than I expected to, which is a good sign for a thriller that could easily have been forgotten the moment I closed it.

Now I can finally watch the Hulu adaptation

Since I read the book first, as planned (eventually), I’m curious how the Hulu version handles a story that depends so heavily on what’s going on in Darby’s head, and whether it can pull off the same slow shuffling of suspicion in a visual format. I’ll be watching with the ending already in my head, which means I’ll be paying attention to a lot of details that would have gone right past me otherwise.

Who should read No Exit

I’d recommend No Exit to anyone who loves a locked-room thriller, a snowed-in setting, or a mystery where every character is a potential suspect. It’s a strong pick for readers who enjoy being kept on edge and don’t mind doing a little mental detective work along the way, and I’d especially point it toward people who like endings that reward a second look. If you’re picky about keeping a large cast straight, give yourself a few chapters to settle in, but I’d say it’s worth the effort.